Spiced Tea

Posted on by Erin

Maybe it seems odd to be posting a tea recipe here on allergen-friendly Monday. I once thought that all tea was free from major allergens. Alas, it isn’t so. Most commercial teabags have soy lecithin added. Some varieties include gluten (in the form of barley). It seems that not even the simplest concoction of herbs and spices is exempt from allergens.

Not only that, but if you deal with any digestive upset (and if you have food intolerances, I’m betting you do) hot tea made with just the right spices can be a tonic to your sensitive GI tract.

What are the right spices? Well, these ones.

Ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, and fennel all bring to the table their own contributions to good digestion. I’ve linked each of those spices to more information regarding how each one aids the digestive process. If you’re interested, spend some time reading about the fascinating world of spices and how they can stimulate different helpful reactions.

Apart from the health benefits, this tea is super-simple to prepare and it tastes great. It tastes a lot like chai. I like to make a double batch and keep it in a big mason jar in the fridge. I warm up a mug at a time, drop in a generous spoonful of honey, and sip away almost every evening. And yes, I totally notice that it soothes and calms my upset tummy.

Plan to Eat users, click on the recipe title to import the recipe into your account.

Spiced Tea

Source: Healing Foods by Sandra Ramacher

Ingredients

  • 2 Tbs fresh ginger, roughly chopped
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 2 tsp cardamom seeds, crushed
  • 2 tsp fennel seeds, whole
  • 5 cups water
  • honey to taste

Method

Place everything, except the honey, into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Strain the tea. Serve hot, sweetened to taste with honey.

Moist and Cakey Almond Flour Pancakes (grain-free)

Posted on by Shannon @ Nourishing Days

We are always trying out different “kinds” of pancakes. You know, there are the dense, starchy ones, the light and fluffy ones, and the almost cake-like moist ones. These fall under the latter category.

Using almond flour instead of a grain makes these guys high in protein and lower in carbs, helping your blood stay even throughout the day. I like them served with plenty of butter alongside bacon and coffee or tea. A perfect way to start the day.

Cakey Almond Flour Pancakes

Recipe Notes: I based this recipe on Elana’s almond flour pancakes with enough tweaks to make it our own. This recipe makes enough for our hungry family of (almost) five with leftovers for snacks or the next day’s breakfast.

Ingredients

  • 4 eggs
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1/4 cup melted butter
  • 1/2 cup plain yogurt
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 3 cups almond meal
  • 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • Butter or coconut oil for frying

Directions

  1. In medium bowl mix dry ingredients. In a separate, small bowl mix wet ingredients. Pour wet ingredients into dry until just combined. Set batter aside to set up.
  2. Meanwhile, heat a skillet over medium-low heat until hot. Once heated up add 2 tablespoons or so of batter to the pan to make each pancake. The pancakes should be no wider than 2 inches or they will not hold together well. The batter is fairly thick so you can spread it out a bit to thin out the pancakes.
  3. Cook until bubbles start to form in the pancakes and underside has browned. Flip and repeat. Serve with butter, syrup, jam, or other favorite topping.

And, by the way, that photo at the top has not been edited. If you use really good eggs your pancakes can be yellow too :) .

Recipe Swap Friday–Fruit, Nut and Spice Cake

Posted on by Erin

Welcome, friends. So glad you’ve joined us for our Recipe Swap Friday.

This week kicks off our Sweet (Enough) Treat Swap. Everyone in our house indulged (perhaps over-indulged??) in sweet treats over the holidays, had an unofficial sugar fast in January just because we were sick of sugar, and are now starting to crave little treats again. However, our time of plenty is still within recent memory and we aren’t really eager to send ourselves into sugar comas again.

So for the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing treats that are just-sweet-enough. Mine will be sweetened with alternative sweeteners (honey, agave nectar, coconut sugar…..) but yours can be any treat that’s not-too-sweet.

Join me? As usual, you can link up to your favorite recipe below, either on your blog or in your Plan to Eat account. If linking up to your Plan to Eat account, just cut and paste the url from the recipe in your recipe book.

This week I’m bringing:

Don’t be put off by the words “fruit” and “cake” used together like that. This cake isn’t one of those fruitcakes. It’s dense (in a good way) and chock full of dried fruit and spices and nuts and is so delicious with a cup of coffee on a cold winter day. The sweetness comes from the fruit, the molasses, and the applesauce.

There’s some refined sugar that comes with the crystallized ginger. If that bugs you, just replace it with grated fresh ginger. I also sprinkled some powdered sugar on top, just to make it pretty. But you can leave that off, too.

Our family makes this cake every year to celebrate Epiphany–the day that ends the Christmas season when we celebrate the wise men completing their journey. King cakes are a traditional part of Epiphany celebrations, but they are usually sugar- and candy-laden concoctions. Since Epiphany so closely follows Christmas, I’m always loathe to celebrate with sugar. I found this recipe a few years ago. It pleased the palates of our kiddos, and we’ve made it every year since.

We say the dried fruit represents the jewels of the “kings”, the spices remind us that the wise men came from the east, and we bake it in a bundt pan so that it looks like a crown. Of course, one can debate whether or not the three kings were literal kings or simply learned scholars. Our kids are young. We have lots of time ahead of us for theological debate. For now, we enjoy the simplicity of our celebration.

Obviously, you can enjoy the cake without the symbolism, too. I’m sure it tastes just as good without a plastic baby falling out of it.

As you seek out ingredients, try to find dried fruit that doesn’t have added sugar. I buy mine in bulk at our local natural grocery store, where sugar-free options abound. Many applesauce brands have sugar added, so be sure to read the labels.

For those who are on restricted diets, I feel sure this could be adapted to be allergen-free, but I’ve never tried it. As it is, it’s egg and dairy free. Someday I’ll experiment with alternative flours, but I haven’t yet. If you decide to make an attempt, would you please share the results with us? I’d love to know what worked or what didn’t.

Oh, and if you decide to add the plastic baby, be sure to stick him into the bottom of the cake after baking.

Plan to Eat users, click on the recipe title below to import the recipe into your account.

Fruit, Nut and Spice Cake

Source: Vegetarian Times

Ingredients

  • 3 cups bread flour
  • 1 Tbs baking powder
  • 1 1⁄2 tsp baking soda
  • 1⁄8 tsp salt
  • 1⁄2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1⁄2 tsp cloves
  • 1⁄2 tsp allspice
  • 1⁄2 tsp mace
  • 1⁄2 cup crystallized ginger, chopped
  • 1 cup golden raisins
  • 2 1⁄2 cup dried cranberries
  • 2 cups dried apricots, diced
  • 2 cups sliced almonds
  • 1 1⁄2 cup applesauce
  • 2⁄3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 cup molasses
  • 1⁄8 cup white vinegar

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 300. Grease and flour a bundt pan.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, mix flour, baking powder, soda, salt and spices until well combined. Add all fruits and nuts to flour mixture, and toss until well coated.
  3. Blend together applesauce, oil, barley malt and vinegar. Working quickly, mix wet ingredients into dry, stirring only until mixed thoroughly. Pour batter into pan and place in center of oven.
  4. Bake for 1 1/2 hours, or until done. Cook cake completely on rack.

 

Share Your Just-Sweet-Enough Treat with the Rest of Us


Rules for Sharing:

This is a sharing post. So...please share.

The rules for sharing are simple: If you take a taste (link from this post to your blog) you should share a taste (link from your blog back to this post).

If you're linking to a recipe in your Plan to Eat account, you don't need to bother with "sharing a taste". Just copy and paste the web address for your recipe from your Plan to Eat account.

How to Get Your Dish Onto the Goodie Table:

I really want this to be easy and accessible to everyone, so leave me a comment if you have trouble. I'll do my best to help you out. It's a little bit harder than just setting a bowl of veg on the table, but I promise it's pretty easy. Just click on the link below that says "Click to view/add link" and follow the directions from there.

Baked Chicken with Tomato Rice Stuffing

Posted on by Erin

I didn’t expect much from this recipe, other than a quick meal that didn’t require too much input from me. Apparently, no one else in my family had much faith in it either. Because as we all sat down together and tucked into our dinners, everyone made sounds of surprised delight.

“Wow, this is actually really good,” says the Sweetie Pie.

Everyone nods in agreement.

And it is. Don’t be fooled by my poorly lit, quickly snapped photo. This dish is really good.

If you’re in a big hurry you can skip browning the chicken. After baking it covered, you can hardly tell that the chicken was browned to begin with. If you want the skins crispy, you can uncover it after an hour and then bake it about 5-10 minutes longer.

The rice is the real winner here. This rice is surprisingly delicious. The Peanut, who only eats bananas and cheese, ate three servings of it. And then the Sweetie Pie and I were fighting over who got to have the leftovers the next day (I won, but only because there wasn’t anything else in the fridge I could eat).

I used last year’s garden tomatoes from my freezer for the “cooked tomatoes”. You could easily used canned tomatoes instead.

Plan to Eat users, click on the recipe title to import the recipe into your account.

Baked Chicken with Tomato Rice Stuffing

Source: More with Less by Doris Janzen Longacre

Ingredients

  • 3-4 lbs organic chicken parts
  • 2⁄3 cup organic chopped celery
  • 1⁄2 cup organic chopped bell pepper
  • 2⁄3 cup chopped onion
  • 1 1⁄3 cup uncooked rice
  • 2 cups cooked tomatoes
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1⁄2 tsp powdered sage

Method

For instructions, see page 181 in More with Less by Doris Janzen Longacre **

** While it’s technically legal to repost recipes, we don’t feel it’s ethical to post copyrighted recipes from the same source for weeks at a time. I’m providing the ingredient list to use in creating a shopping list. We here at the Plan to Eat blog apologize for any inconvenience. If you don’t already own the cookbook, and don’t wish to buy it, most libraries have a copy on their shelves. Thanks for your understanding.

 

 

Tangerine Beef Stir Fry

Posted on by Erin

We eat out very rarely. But if it’s a special occasion, or if someone’s parents are in town and treating us all to dinner, the Sweetie Pie really likes to go to a local Chinese place. He always spends lots of time reading the menu, wavering between this dish or that one, and then–every single time–he ends up ordering the orange beef. He saw this recipe when the magazine came in the mail and he said, “Ooh, yum!” What else could I do? The dish had to be made.

I made quite a few ingredient changes. First, I used tangelos instead of tangerines. Whenever I’m using citrus zest in a dish, I prefer that it be organic. I couldn’t find organic tangerines, so I chose tangelos instead. I think this may have worked out better anyway, because the quantity of juice in a tangelo is much more than in a tangerine. Less reaming=happy mama.

Some of my substitutions were a matter of preference (using honey instead of sugar; reducing the quantity of scallions and red-pepper, to make it more child-friendly).

Other substitutions were allergen related. I can’t have corn, so I always use potato starch in place of corn starch. You could also use tapioca starch, or arrowroot powder, or any other thickener that suits your diet.

I substituted coconut aminos for the soy sauce. I’ve written before about the various things I use in place of soy sauce. Either of them would be appropriate here, but I chose the coconut aminos because I thought the sweetness would go well with the tangerine flavor.

Finally, a reminder to check your vinegar for this recipe. If you’re gluten-intolerant, vinegar is a sneaky source of potential gluten. Only buy vinegar that is certified gluten-free.

I recommend serving this up with a substantial green veggie. I used steamed broccoli, which was great. You could also use steamed snow peas or snap peas.

Plan to Eat users, click on the recipe title to import the recipe into your account.

Tangerine Beef Stir Fry

Source: Everyday Foods

Ingredients

  • 3 pound organic beef sirloin, sliced very thinly against the grain
  • 1 bunch scallions
  • 6 Tbs fresh ginger, minced
  • 1⁄2 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 4 wide strips tangerine zest
  • 6 Tbs fresh tangerine juice
  • 2 Tbs potato or tapioca starch
  • 1⁄2 tsp coarse salt
  • 2 Tbs soy-less sauce
  • 2 Tbs rice vinegargluten free
  • 4 tsp honey or agave
  • 4 Tbs cooking oil
  • rice, for serving

Method

  1. Thinly slice two of the scallions. Cut the remaining scallions into thirds, discarding the white part.
  2. In a bowl, combine the beef, thinly sliced scallion, ginger, zest, potato starch, and salt; toss to coat. In a separate bowl, combine juice, soy-less sauce, vinegar, honey, and 2 Tbs water.
  3. Heat a large wok or skillet over high heat until hot. Add oil and swirl to coat. Add beef mixture and remaining scallions and cook, stirring constantly, until beef is browned, about 5 minutes. Add tangerine-juice mixture; cook, stirring, until sauce is bubbling and slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Serve over rice.